Talking Paradigm: A Surreal New Adventure Game

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It’s the near future, and the world has been ravaged by some sort of nuclear disaster. Mutants are roaming the streets and as the protagonist in this story you’re left to fend for yourself in this bleak, ruinous environment. Oh, and you’ve also got to save the world from certain destruction. Or further destruction, as it were. After all, you’re roaming a wasteland.

Sound familiar? Well how about this, this post-nuclear setting is actually a lush, green, postcard-like environment filled with the sort of rundown buildings and exposed piping that belong in a Russian science-fiction film from the ‘70s.

The protagonist you control goes by the unlikely name of Paradigm; he’s the product of failed genetic engineering, and not what you would call a looker. He loves electronic music, making beats, and dreams of one day of becoming an electronic music superstar. He lives inside an abandoned power station, his only friend is a computer who’s obsessed with online dating, and right outside his doorstep lives a sentient eggplant that beatboxes so well you can understand why he’s got a sign offering up fresh beats for $5 a pop.

This is only a small part of the world of Paradigm, a new adventure game from Perth developer Jacob Janerka. As a dapper young fellow who’s not afraid to sport a turtle neck and moustache for promotional purposes, Paradigm is his first game and one where he’s basically doing all the work himself; everything from art and animation, to the writing. It’s also a game born from a love of the adventure genre and an affinity for the sort of surreal comedy one might find late at night watching Adult Swim or The Mighty Boosh.

Do all game developers look like this?

Described as a surreal comic adventure, even in these early stages Paradigm lives up to this promise. (You can play the demo here.) It features art design with a style and sensibility rarely seen in adventure games. It’s funny, endearing, off-putting, and weird enough to become a cult hit. Any game that features a toupee-wearing sloth as the antagonist, who for canonical reasons regurgitates candy bars, is definitely worth checking out.

Exit Theatre Mode

What follows is a chat with Jacob about the game, his process, and his thoughts on everything from comedy, to music, the adventure genre itself, and taking the project to Kickstarter.

IGN: What were some of your initial goals when you set out to make Paradigm?

Jacob Janerka: The game began as a fun idea I had at university, which was simply to create a game. The initial idea was for it to be this 2D sidescroller. But all the work being done at that stage was just for fun, trying to create something unique and at the same time something really weird. Eventually as I was working with the ideas and art that I had, I thought it would be really cool if it became an adventure game. I absolutely love the genre, but had no idea how to go about making one. I don’t have a programming background so after looking into it online, just to see if it was possible, I found this program called Visionaire. So after playing with that for a while it all just kind of clicked, and I knew Paradigm was something that I had to make.

IGN: What was it about Visionaire as a game engine that convinced you to start making Paradigm?

Jacob Janerka: For one thing it’s really easy to use, and doesn’t require any programming ability. That was a very big plus for me, mainly because I can’t do any of that stuff. I mean, I love technology, but I’m not particularly good at maths. So with Visionaire I saw one of the games that the creators had made called Deponia, and it looked so professional. It struck me as incredible that something like that could be made with a product that’s so easy to use. Everything is laid out for you in Visionaire and all you have to do is just use your own logic to make it unique for the game you’re creating.

This game certainly has its own logic.

IGN: So without a programming background, what then would have been a typical day working on Paradigm in those early design stages?

Jacob Janerka: Well the biggest thing for me has always been creating and sketching out ideas with pen and paper. What I do is get a bunch of A3 pieces of paper and then just write and write and write, until I find an interesting idea or just something that makes me laugh. It’s a long process and it usually takes hours. Sometimes I’ll just write random words, pick things out, try and connect them, switch them up. And that applies to everything from the characters to the backgrounds too.

A peek into the visual design process.

IGN: That makes sense as the game has a great hand drawn art style. How then do you approach the animation side of things?

Jacob Janerka: The animation is all done in Photoshop and I paint each individual frame. That was probably one of the more stupid decisions that I made, but also one of the better ones. In the end it makes Paradigm look and feel pretty unique, but yeah, it’s time consuming. But that being said, I’ve been doing it for a while now and I’ve got a whole process worked out.

When I got serious about making Paradigm I really wanted to make something that would kind of push the boundary in adventure gaming in terms of animation. What I mean by that, and not to knock on the amazing adventure games out there, is that not a lot of them push the humour into these crazy places. Stuff that you see plenty of in animation, like on Adult Swim. The idea was there from the very beginning to make something really crazy, and to not buffer myself within any constraints.

IGN: So would you say that the sort of stuff one might find on Adult Swim helped shape the look and animation style in the game?

Jacob Janerka: Yeah definitely. I also really love Pixar, so there’s that side too. Their films are great, but every time I watch one a little part of me wants to see them tackle some darker themes or even use darker colour schemes.

IGN: On that note what would be one of your favourite Pixar movies?

Jacob Janerka: That’s a hard question to answer. I guess I would say, Up.

IGN: Nice try, the correct answer is Toy Story.

Jacob Janerka: Yeah, you’re probably right and that does have a few darker flourishes in it too.

You have to dig a little for the Pixar influence, but it's there.

IGN: Okay, so now that you’ve got an engine and are animating things like it’s the 1930s, describe the decision to take Paradigm to Kickstarter.

Jacob Janerka: One of the main reasons I took the game to Kickstarter was to make it a real, professional product. And for that you need money. The musician I have creating the musical score in the game, Jonas Kjellberg, is really good. In fact, he’s amazing and as it turns out needs to eat to live just like I do, so I wanted to be able to pay him what he deserves. Now there are a lot of people out there who would have been willing to contribute music for free, but if you’re serious about making something, you need to pay the people who contribute. And that applies to the voice acting as well, which happens to be pretty expensive.

IGN: Music plays a big part in the game, from Paradigm himself dreaming of electronic music stardom to the score itself. What was the process like in deciding on the sound of the game and collaborating with Jonas Kjellberg?

Jacob Janerka: I was posting my stuff on Screenshot Saturday on Reddit and I had this random guy message me about creating some music for the game. The way he pitched the idea was that the he didn't want to make 'bossbattletheme#356’ but instead create unique music for awesome games, it definitely caught my attention more than most generic emails. Eventually we started talking regularly and being around the same age we had similar interests and more importantly, a similar sense of humour. I actually spent some time weighing up my options but Jonas was far better than everyone else I checked out, and also much more handsome. So we started working together and because I didn’t have a lot of money I could only really pay him for a couple of tracks and nowhere near enough for him to score the entire game.

Working with Jonas was a real collaborative process too. His initial thoughts for the game was this super quirky, ridiculous electronica. I wasn't a huge fan, at least in the context of my vision. I then pitched something more like cocky sounding modern ‘80s techno kind of stuff. Jonas liked the idea, but pointed out it probably wouldn’t be the best fit for an adventure game. We then let it sit for a while and I eventually pitched the idea for something more akin to ‘70s electronica like Tangerine Dream and movies such as Blade Runner.

You can hear Doug drop dope beats in the demo.

IGN: Music is often the overlooked side of most media, including games. Has music played a big role or been a big influence in your own life?

Jacob Janerka: As an artist you can find yourself sitting down spending an entire day painting with music playing in the background. So by having music there for 10 hours a day, it’s definitely going to become a huge influence in everything that you do. And when you’re creating a game, music should be just as important as everything else. When I was designing and writing Paradigm I was actually listening to a lot of stuff from artists like RJD2 and DJ Shadow. And in a way their music kind of informed the character of Paradigm.

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When I was designing and writing Paradigm I was actually listening to a lot of stuff from artists like RJD2 and DJ Shadow. And in a way their music kind of informed the character of Paradigm.

I’ve always liked the idea of a character who was a DJ and a game where the player could manipulate the world with music and beats. Initially I had all these complicated ideas in how to use music in the game. But I’m not a programmer, so that kind of evolved into the main character becoming a DJ, wearing an MPC, making beats.

And Paradigm himself is also a homage to Monkey Island - him wanting to become the greatest electronic musician is kind of like Guybrush Threepwood trying to become the greatest pirate.

IGN: So if time and money weren’t an issue, how would music then fit into the actual game mechanics?

Jacob Janerka: If I had an unlimited budget and at the same time actual programmers working on the game, then I’d love to have dynamic music in there. I had a discussion with another game designer and programmer who actually told me to stay away from stuff like that, mainly because it’s very difficult to implement, and can get real buggy real quick. If I could I would have loved to be able to make Paradigm’s MPC fully interactive so players could not only use it to create music, but also to solve musical puzzles and even manipulate the game world. Currently I’m designing a basic puzzle in that vein, but it’s more of a close-up shot of an MPC that players then interact with.

IGN: The look of the game has this great mix of retro-inspired visions of the future that wouldn’t feel out of place in the ‘70s, whilst also incorporating some great ‘80s and ‘90s animation styles. Plus a whole lot more. How would you describe the aesthetic?

Jacob Janerka: I love the idea of what people thought the future would look like in the ‘70s because it’s so cool and at the same time really bizarre. If I had to describe the look of the game, well, that’s actually hard to do without resorting to buzzwords.